Gov. Rick Perry sharply criticized local mayors and county judges Tuesday for naming a committee, rather than a single commander, to manage future catastrophes that may strike the region.

He said the proposed leadership-by-committee solution, which contradicts an executive order he issued last month, was "fraught with danger," and asked local officials to reconsider their decision.

"I do not see the wisdom in having 15 people being brought together on a conference call when 1.2 million people's lives are on the line," he said. "I think it makes abundant good sense in those grand, large situations like that to have one individual being able to make a decision on the evacuation of an entire region."

Perry's order, issued after the chaotic evacuation preceding the landfall of Hurricane Rita, calls upon each of 24 regions in Texas to name a commander to respond to natural and manmade disasters. Tuesday was the deadline for regions to agree upon a "unified command structure," and each region must name a single commander by Thursday.

Related Stories

The local region's committee will have appointees from 13 area counties and the cities of Houston and Galveston. County judges, including Robert Eckels of Harris County, as well as mayors Bill White of Houston and Lyda Ann Thomas of Galveston, unanimously voted to approve the committee plan.

Yet despite their votes in favor of the plan, some county judges were uneasy even in their support of a loosely formed committee. Few wanted to delegate any authority to the committee, let alone a single commander during a crisis.

Before the committee approach was adopted, its name was changed from "Unified Area Command" to "Unified Area Coordinating Committee." Some judges and mayors, loathe to give the committee any undue imprimatur of authority, assented to the plan only after the name change.

"I'm not going to delegate my responsibility as a Fort Bend County official to any committee," said Fort Bend County Judge Robert Hebert.

Added Galveston County Judge James Yarbrough: "This committee is not going to tell me what to do."

Picking only 15 was hard

Far from picking a single commander to manage a catastrophe in a 13-county region that is the size of Maryland and includes 150 local governments, densely populated coastal lowlands and sparsely developed inland prairies, area officials struggled to limit the committee to 15 members.

White and Eckels both said they expect to reconcile Tuesday's vote with Perry's order.

"If there is a massive regional evacuation, then there needs to be someone that is calling the shots on transportational logistics. That's something we wanted," White said. "With the committee, it can happen before hurricane season begins."

Eckels said he thinks the committee of 15 — as opposed to 10 times as many mayors and judges — can name a single commander soon, albeit not within the timeline of Perry's order.

The inability to choose a single commander for every type of catastrophe, as directed by Perry, arose from discussions with emergency management personnel, who argued that one person might be best for a hurricanes, another for dealing with a bioterrorist attack, Eckels said.

"My expectation is that this committee will now move forward and identify people who will fill those commander roles," he said.

Yet there was no mandate for this in the committee plan approved by the mayors and county judges Tuesday. The plan creates no permanent structure, and it outlines no method for selecting leadership within. Instead, it envisions a committee of equals.

How the committee will actually function during a catastrophe — hurricane season begins in six weeks — remains murky.

In addition, the coordinating committee will move forward with little statutory authority. The cities and counties represented by its 15 members will not be bound by any of its decisions.

What the committee will have is a "tremendous moral authority," said Bill King, the former mayor of Kemah and a member of the task force Perry assigned last year to study what worked, and what didn't, during the Rita evacuation.

Counties will feel a moral responsibility to follow the recommendations of the coordinating committee, King said, because they won't want to let their peers down at a time of crisis. Still, King acknowledged that a single leader would probably be more effective, as would a committee with some statutory authority.

Hebert said he was dubious of a committee with nothing more than moral authority, saying that could easily break down during a crisis. Lacking legal authority, he added, "This committee will be hamstrung from the get-go."

Panel's functions unclear

The local plan envisions the committee's being called up at a time of crisis, such as when a major hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico. Its appointees will be encouraged, but not required, to be present for face-to-face meetings, and to hunker down at Houston's Transtar facility during the emergency. Beyond staging and managing evacuations it is unclear what function the committee will have.

Some county judges said they hoped the coordinating committee would be a useful tool for apportioning and rationing resources, such as airlifting capabilities and fuel, during a crisis.

The committee's structure and plan, therefore, is inherently malleable.

Under Texas law, county judges are a county's top emergency management official. They have the power to call for evacuations but derive their other emergency management powers from the governor. If Perry ultimately finds the committee approach unacceptable, therefore, he could intercede with his own plan.

Local officials, however, don't expect that to happen.

Some county judges asked during Tuesday's meeting if they were violating Perry's order by naming a committee instead of a single commander. Although he acknowledged that Perry ordered the development of a "unified command structure," Steele said this was a "term of art." Perry would accept a committee plan developed and unanimously approved by local managers, he told the mayors and judges before they voted.

Most public officials denied that discord played any role in their ability to name a single commander for the 13-county region.

Yet it was clear Tuesday that some of the coastal-inland rifts caused by the Rita evacuation have not fully healed. Shortly after Rita, some coastal officials blamed Harris and other inland counties for failing to prevent logjams as residents headed toward San Antonio, Austin and Dallas.

"I already know what to do in my county," Brazoria County Judge John Willy said during the discussion. "What I need help with is areas outside my jurisdiction, where I have no power."